"No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone." —Oscar Wilde
|
Spencer Tinkham (b.1992) is an American multidisciplinary artist whose paintings, sculptures, and installations explore perception, ecological change, and natural history. Drawing from research in natural history museums and scientific collections, he studies preserved specimens, migratory species, and biological structures as records of environmental transformation and cultural memory.
Working across carved wood, painting, and installation, Tinkham creates forms that move between realism and abstraction. Through scale, repetition, and material tension, his work transforms patterns found in nature into physical encounters that connect biological form with human emotion. Rather than depicting the natural world directly, the work shifts familiar forms into psychologically charged states, inviting viewers to reconsider how they perceive and relate to the living world. Most recently, Spencer was awarded the Marilyn Newmark Memorial Grant by the National Sculpture Society and voted an Elected Member. He was selected as a David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Artist of the Year finalist. “Colaptes auratus auratus” was juried into the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson “Birds in Art” museum exhibition and acquired for the museum collection. He has work in the Dollar Tree, Inc. corporate art collection, and his work is collected and exhibited internationally. Press
Find recent articles below, or click on the red titles to be directed to the official online versions.
Hyperallergic, June 2026, "30 Must-See Art Shows in New York City This Summer"Hi-Fructose Magazine, Issue 72Sculpture Review, Fall 2023 "Flying Off the Walls"Garden & Gun Magazine, Feb./Mar. 2018, "Search and Decoy"PBS/WHRO, Curate Season 2 Episode 2, "Creative Carver"Distinction Magazine, Spring 2017, "Carver Brings Wood To Life" |